Peterborough By-Election: Police Investigate Five Fraud Allegations

Police are investigating five allegations of electoral fraud during the Peterborough by-election, which The Brexit Party lost to Labour by a narrow margin of fewer than 700 votes.

Cambridgeshire Police have confirmed that one allegation relates to bribery and corruption, three to postal vote fraud, and one breach of privacy of votes.

According to the Peterborough Telegraph  one investigation involves “a message shared on social media allegedly showing someone bragging that he and two others had ‘burned more than 1,000 votes for the Brexit Party’”.

There are also questions surrounding a Labour activist Tariq Mahmood who was jailed in 2008 for postal vote interference.

The Peterborough Telegraph reports that Mahmood was pictured during the campaign with both Labour candidate Lisa Forbes and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — and was also present at the election count.

But it adds that Labour denies any wrongdoing.

However, Labour has categorically denied that Mr Mahmood had any involvement in the campaign, with a spokesman saying: “Peterborough council, who organises the count, always announce the results in a public area of the venue. There were hundreds of people there. The Labour Party had 19 official guests who were allowed into the restricted areas. He was not one of them.”